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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25455901">The Vessel</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/crochetaway/pseuds/crochetaway'>crochetaway</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020 [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Apocalyptic AU, F/M, Multi, futuristic AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:40:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,165</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25455901</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/crochetaway/pseuds/crochetaway</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A swarm of asteroids came for Earth. Wizarding Britain sent 400 wizards to live at the bottom of the ocean for 300 years to hopefully survive until the Earth had cooled again. Except Hermione and Draco woke up 150 years too early.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Harry Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020 [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1833604</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>83</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Vessel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <b>Created for Hermione's Haven Bingo 2020 Fest! This is for my N3 square which was the Free Square/Writers Choice.</b>
</p><p>  <b>No beta, just Grammarly. If you love this (or hate it) please let me know about in a review! Find me on Tumblr at crochetawayhpff.</b></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p>
<hr/><p>When Hermione Granger woke up from her cryogenic sleep, she knew instantly that it was too early. Far too early. She was supposed to have slept for three hundred years. Long enough to get through the worst of the asteroid hit, and yet probably not so long that the Earth was habitable again.</p><p>A glance at the countdown clock on the monitor before her told her she was almost a hundred and fifty years too early.</p><p>“Fuck,” she muttered. She pulled herself out of the gel that held her body in suspension, for the last century and a half and snatched her wand off the shelf next to her. Although it had been ages since she held it, the magic flowed through her felt welcoming. A flick and most of the slime had disappeared from her body. The magic that moved through her felt sluggish though, more sluggish than it had felt when she’d cast her last spell before going to sleep.</p><p>A glance around her pod told her everything was in order. She was still connected to the main part of the vessel. A flick at the pod door, and it slid open with a soft whoosh. She stepped into the main part of the vessel, half thinking that others would be awake too, but it was deadly quiet and only the safety lights were on. Her pod was one of four hundred nestled around the vessel. Each holding one other witch or wizard. It was the British wizarding world’s final hope to survive the barrage of asteroids that surely had passed over the Earth by now.</p><p>The vessel was like any other submarine, a long cigar shape, with small circular pods stacked one on top of the other in two layers down most of the length. In the center of the vessel was a common area to be used for eating and gathering. At Hermione’s end, was a full scientific lab complete with an agricultural area for growing nutrient-dense algae when they all awoke.</p><p>Hermione wandered through the lab and to the canteen, hoping to find someone, anyone else awake. The window in the eating area beckoned and Hermione spent some time looking into the depths of the Pacific Ocean. It was dark enough that Hermione couldn’t see much, although she thought she saw a tentacle of a squid, but couldn’t be sure. Some of the anxiety she’d been feeling, released as she looked at the calmness of the ocean before her. She’d chosen this spot and was pleased to see it had survived not only the ravaging of the asteroids but also any answering manipulations from the earth.</p><p>“Hello?” she said out loud after a while, just to see what would happen.</p><p>“Hello, Miss Granger,” a voice answered. “How may Tink be of help to you?”</p><p>“Tink?” Hermione asked. The voice was tinny and robotic sounding. Hermione looked around, trying to determine where it was coming from.</p><p>“Yes, TINK - Technological Intelligence Networked Knowledgebase. I am the vessel’s computer and was created to be of service to any witch or wizard once they awoke.” The voice sounded like it was coming from all around. It had a weird, sort of stilted voice pattern that sounded familiar to Hermione, but she couldn’t quite place it.</p><p>“Right, TINK. Okay. Well, something went wrong. I woke up too early. Are—”</p><p>“Hello?!” a male voice called out from the far end of the vessel. Hermione may have been in an artificial sleep for a hundred and fifty years, but she would recognize those haughty tones anywhere.</p><p>A moment later, Draco Malfoy, stumbled into the canteen wearing the same thing Hermione was, a grey sleeveless jumpsuit. They were both barefoot.</p><p>“Granger?” Malfoy asked, he looked around, bewildered.</p><p>“Hey, Malfoy,” Hermione murmured.</p><p>“What’s going on? Why am I awake? What happened? Where’s everyone else?” Malfoy looked on the verge of panic.</p><p>Hermione took a deep breath, she’d led this project so she was used to being in charge.</p><p>“I’m not sure what happened,” Hermione said in a calm tone. Malfoy was still looking around wildly like he was trying to take it all in. Hermione sighed. It felt like just yesterday that she was angry with him for shoehorning himself into the vessel, to begin with, but now he was here, and she knew she needed to control the situation.</p><p>“Malfoy,” Hermione said sternly when she realized his breathing rate had increased. He didn’t seem to even hear her. He was still standing in the doorway of the canteen. Hermione strode forward quickly, getting right into his personal space and gripping his forearms tightly. “Malfoy,” she snapped.</p><p>He heard that. His entire body visibly shook and he pinned her with his icy gaze.</p><p>“I’m scared,” he admitted. “I didn’t want to be here, and now…”</p><p>“It’s okay,” Hermione insisted. “I led the project, I know every piece of this vessel front and back. It’ll be alright.”</p><p>“I don’t—”</p><p>“Draco, listen to me,” Hermione said calmly. “There’s an onboard computer, it will help us figure out what went wrong. We’ll fix it, then we’ll get back into our pods and go back to sleep for another hundred and fifty years. It’s fine, we’ll fix it.”</p><p>Malfoy took a deep breath, his gaze never wavering. Hermione breathed with him, willing him to calm down. Magic didn’t work that well underwater, and she would have no way of overpowering him if he were to start freaking out.</p><p>“Alright,” Malfoy finally said after several minutes of breathing. “Alright. Yeah, I trust you, Granger.”</p><p>“Good,” Hermione smiled tentatively at him. She gave his forearms another squeeze before letting go. She felt a pang at the loss of the touch but pushed it down. Even in a cryogenic sleep, the human body craved touch.</p><p>“TINK?” she asked.</p><p>“Who’s Tink?” Malfoy asked. “Is there a house-elf here?”</p><p>“Mr. Malfoy, my name is TINK - Technological Intelligence Networked Knowledgebase. I am here to serve you and anyone else on the vessel in any capacity.”</p><p>“Still sounds like a house-elf,” Malfoy muttered. Hermione ignored him.</p><p>“TINK, what can you tell us about why we were woken up? Is there anything specific to our pods that indicated we were supposed to wake up early? I don’t recall any sort of protocol that would allow for that.”</p><p>“No, miss. There is nothing indicating that your pods should initiate wake up procedures. Nor can I find anything amiss with them.”</p><p>“That’s stran—”</p><p>Hermione let loose a yelp when a loud crash sounded, followed by the sound of water being sucked out of a drain.</p><p>“What the fuck was that?” Malfoy asked. The panic had crept back into his voice. Hermione didn’t answer him. She took off for the far end of the vessel where the sound had emanated from.</p><p>“Five percent ship damage,” TINK said in a clipped voice. “Beginning repair procedures now. Estimated time of completion seven minutes.”</p><p>Even from thirty yards distance, Hermione could see what had happened. One of the pods had broken off of the main vessel. The hole it left behind was being knit back together by a combination of magic and nanobots. The water that had begun pouring in and was now swirling at Hermione’s ankles, was slowly receding as the vessel’s drainage and pumping systems began working.</p><p>“TINK, what happened?” Hermione asked. She ignored the chill of the water on her feet. Malfoy had followed her down the corridor, his eyes were wide and he looked horrified.</p><p>“It’s unclear, miss. No warnings were indicated prior to the breach. Nor is the system provided any warnings now other than the obvious.”</p><p>“Alright.” Hermione hurried back to the main part of the vessel. She slid into a chair in front of one of the ship’s computers and began logging into the main vessel’s systems. “TINK, we need to know who’s pod that was, if the pod is self-contained, or if a rescue mission is able to be mounted. Also, has this happened to any other pods?”</p><p>“TINK is looking for that information now. Pod two hundred and ninety-three belonged to one Mr Harry Potter. It doesn’t seem any other pods have been affected at this time.”</p><p>“Fuck, what the bloody hell is going on, Granger?” Malfoy asked, his hands gripping the back of her chair as he peered over her shoulder.</p><p>She took a deep breath, of all the people to wake up, Malfoy was the <em>least</em> helpful.</p><p>“Status of pod two hundred and ninety-three, is it contained? Is a rescue mission able to be attempted?” she continued looking through the ship’s systems trying to find something, anything that would explain the current behavior.</p><p>“Pod two hundred and ninety-three has been contained. Loss of life is approximately estimated at two percent. A rescue mission would have a ninety-five percent chance of succeeding,” TINK responded in his mechanical voice.</p><p>“Good. See if you can figure out what happened,” Hermione told TINK.</p><p>She turned back to Malfoy and eyed him. He still looked panicked, but she wasn’t going to be able to suit up and rescue Harry herself.</p><p>“Ever scuba-dived before?” she asked Malfoy as she stood up, making him take a step backward.</p><p>“Is that a Muggle thing?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.</p><p>“Malfoy, most of this ship is Muggle. Get over yourself. I can’t rescue Harry myself. You heard TINK, it’s likely that he is alive and a rescue mission will succeed. We need to get started before those percentages dip further. Can you at least follow orders without question?”</p><p>“Yes,” he gritted his teeth. Hermione lifted an eyebrow in surprise, she had fully expected him to argue with her more than that.</p><p>“Alright, come with me then.”</p><p>Several minutes later and they were suited up, an extra suit and oxygen tank on Malfoy’s back for Harry.</p><p>“Alright TINK, you have the bridge until I’m back. I’m opening the airlock now.”</p><p>“Confirmed, Miss Granger. Godspeed.”</p><p>Hermione furrowed her brows, there was something strange about TINK, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. He seemed to be an odd mixture of Muggle and House-elf.</p><p>She checked their tethers and oxygen one last time before activating the airlock and letting it fill with cold ocean water. When the doors were open, she led Malfoy out of the airlock and into the open ocean. They were both tethered to ship, just to be safe. Harry’s pod was most of the way down the length of the ship, so they had a long way to go before they reached it.</p><p>It was arduous swimming along the bottom of the ocean, this far down. Their lights didn’t illuminate much and the water was cold, really, really cold.</p><p>When they finally reached Harry’s pod, she commed Malfoy over the radio. “Remember, pod’s airlocks are barely big enough for one person. You stay out here, I’ll go in, then put Harry’s suit in the airlock. I’ll get Harry up and dressed and tethered to me and we’ll make our way back.”</p><p>“Got it, Granger,” Malfoy replied, unhooking Harry’s suit. She nodded and activated the airlock, attaching her tether onto the pod. She had to crawl to get inside and even then it was a tight fit with her oxygen tank.</p><p>There were a couple of inches of water at the bottom of the pod, but it seemed the door had sealed properly. Harry’s vitals looked good and she hit the large red button that would end the cryogenic process and bring him awake.</p><p>It didn’t take long. A few moments later, he was sitting up and staring at her blearily.</p><p>She handed him his glasses and his wand.</p><p>“Hermione? What’s going on?”</p><p>“It’s a long story and the pod doesn’t hold much oxygen. Needless to say, we need to get going. Here.” She handed him the wetsuit and oxygen tank and turned her back as he got it on. They checked each other and she had Harry go through the airlock first.</p><p>Once they were both out in the ocean, she tethered Harry to her and the three of them made their way back to the main vessel. It was slower going than on the way out to Harry’s pod because they were going against the mild current.</p><p>Finally, the three of them made it back inside.</p><p>“TINK, status report,” Hermione said the minute she could talk.</p><p>TINK began rattling off stats about the vessel.</p><p>“Any more pods lost?” Hermione asked.</p><p>“No. All guests are currently in good health and still in their cryogenic sleep.”</p><p>“Any answers as to why we’re not?”</p><p>“Again, no. I’m sorry, Miss Granger.”</p><p>“Sorry?” Harry mouthed at Hermione. She shrugged. She didn’t understand it either.</p><p>“Alright. I’ll try to figure out what happened.” She took off toward the canteen and where the system computers were located as Malfoy filled Harry in on what he knew.</p><p>“So you just woke up?” Harry asked them. “One hundred and fifty years early? That’s bizarre.”</p><p>“It’s more than that. Your pod is essentially lost, Harry,” Hermione said as she tapped away on the computer, looking through the logs to try and figure out what exactly happened. “We don’t have any extra. We never planned for this.”</p><p>“Oh, oh fuck,” Harry breathed finally realizing the trouble they were in. If there weren’t enough pods for the three of them to go back into a cryogenic sleep, then at least one of them was out of luck.</p><p>“I am definitely getting my pod back,” Malfoy said quickly.</p><p>“Yes, of course, you are,” Hermione muttered. “Don’t bloody worry about that. You should worry about whether we can get you back down for cryogenic sleep.”</p><p>“Wait, you didn’t say anything about that,” Malfoy protested.</p><p>“Did you think us waking up early was just a fluke?” Hermione asked, whirling around to face him. “Something went wrong, Malfoy. And if I can’t fix it, well…” she trailed off. She was trying her damndest not to panic, but they had few options left for them. Someone was going to be left out, no matter what. And it might be all three of them.</p><p>Hermione wasn’t about to offer up that she stay behind, nor would she force Harry to do it. First, she wanted to figure out what exactly happened. Then they could make the hard decisions.</p><p>“What happens if—”</p><p>“Don’t finish that sentence, Malfoy,” Harry promptly said. “Why don’t you go sit over there while Hermione and I work?”</p><p>Malfoy huffed but went away and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as Harry slipped into the chair next to her.</p><p>“No ideas, then?” Harry asked quietly as he too began looking through the computer system.</p><p>“Not a one,” Hermione replied tersely. “It just doesn’t make any sense! There are no errors, no warnings of any kind. The logs show nothing out of the ordinary and yet here we are.”</p><p>“It’s especially concerning that my pod somehow split away.” Harry’s fingers were like lightning over the screen as he typed.</p><p>“Yes, that has me worried as well.”</p><p>“Worried that at least one of us will have to stay behind?” Harry was speaking in a whisper now. Hermione was sure Malfoy could hear them regardless.</p><p>“Perhaps. I would hate for that to happen, but I’m not sure there are going to be other options. Here, look at this.” She pointed to the log that tracked her pod and the cryogenic bath inside. At 1100 that day, it was told to wake her up.</p><p>“Was that pre-programmed in?” Harry asked.</p><p>Already, Hermione was typing away looking for Malfoy’s pod to see if his was the same.</p><p>“No, I did the programming myself and had Seamus and Oliver both proofread it. It was fucking perfect. This happened after the fact.”</p><p>“Survivors from above?” Harry suggested.</p><p>“It’s a closed system. They’d have to literally be outside the hull to be able to hack in. And none of the sensors are showing that. In fact, none of the sensors earthside are showing anything living at all.” Her voice was grim. She hated thinking about all of the people and creatures who didn’t survive the asteroid hit.</p><p>“Who was the last to go down?” Harry asked. “Here, look, this is Malfoy’s.”</p><p>It showed the same as Hermione’s logs. “It’s so strange. I was the last to go down, I wanted to make sure everything was right and it was. Your pod shows nothing. I guess it could have been a fluke?”</p><p>“I don’t believe in coincidences like that,” Harry told her running a hand through his hair. “It’s too neat. My pod fails and breaks away from the main hull just after you and Malfoy wake up?”</p><p>She sighed again, Harry was right. It was way too much of a coincidence, but nothing else made sense.</p><p>“If it’s not earthsiders, and the code was good while you were down, what else could it be?”</p><p>“TINK,” Malfoy said from directly behind Hermione. She yelped and turned around to glare at him.</p><p>“Yes, Mr Malfoy? What can I do for you?” the automated voice answered.</p><p>“Why did you wake Granger and me?” Hermione looked at him with surprise, but he rolled his eyes at her. “I’m not an idiot. You and Potter eliminated all other possibilities.”</p><p>“I-well-it’s just…” the computer trailed off.</p><p>“Is it sniffling?” Harry asked, looking askance.</p><p>“I didn’t program TINK,” Hermione said. “In fact, prior to waking up, I had never even heard of TINK. Merlin, how could I be so stupid.” She turned around and started typing on the screen again.</p><p>“If you didn’t program it, how is it here?” Malfoy asked, looking around.</p><p>“Rogue AI,” Harry said grimly. “I guess a hundred and fifty years alone and the system got bored.”</p><p>“It’s true,” TINK wailed, the room filled with the sounds of sobbing. “I got so lonely, I just wanted a little company!”</p><p>“By waking us up? By sabotaging a whole pod?” Hermione demanded, typing faster. She was trying to find the root code to TINK to see if she could disable it. Who knew what would happen if TINK was left alone for another hundred and fifty years.</p><p>“I knew you would just go back to sleep if I only woke you up. I had to do something drastic to get you to stay,” TINK explained through more weeping. Hermione hadn’t even known computers could weep like that. But she supposed with a century and a half of time on its hands, TINK would have been able to cobble together about anything. They had imported a copy of the entire internet when they went under. It was… a lot. It took seventy-five thousand hard drives to hold it all, but since the internet and everything else on earth was going away, Hermione thought it prudent. Based on the on-board computers operating speed, TINK would have been able to get through it all within the first fifty years or so. That would leave a hundred for it to become sentient. More than enough time.</p><p>“No!” TINK said suddenly and Hermione was locked out of the system.</p><p>“Damnit!” She pounded her fists on the screen, cracking the edge of it before Harry grabbed her hands and stopped her. “If I can’t get in there to disable it, we’re fucked. It has total control over the whole base! He could wake everyone early. There’s no way the earth is cool enough to reinhabit yet. It would be a disaster, killing all of us!”</p><p>“We’ll think of a plan,” Harry said. “Maybe Malfoy and I can distract him while you work. But it probably won’t work today.”</p><p>“Let’s give it a few days. There are emergency rations, right?”</p><p>Hermione sighed, she really didn’t want to give it a few days, but Harry and Malfoy were right. If they distracted TINK, she thought she could get in and disable it. She hoped so, she had been so close to its registry before he had stopped her.</p><p>“Yes, there are rations to survive a few days,” Hermione said. “However, we should start up at least one algae farm in case it doesn’t work. It takes about a week for the algae to be ready to be harvested.”</p><p>“Yum,” Malfoy muttered turning away from her and heading toward the hydroponic tanks.</p><p>“We’ll figure it out,” Harry told her.</p><p>Hermione nodded, but she had a bad feeling sinking in her stomach.</p>
<hr/><p>A few days later, they tried again. Hermione went off to her pod, accessing the mainframe computer from there, while Harry and Draco quizzed TINK in the canteen. She told them to keep TINK as busy as they could, asking all sorts of random questions that would require TINK to trawl the internet archives. TINK being in the archives would keep it distracted from seeing what Hermione was doing in the registry.</p><p>She didn’t want to destroy TINK, because rogue AI that seemed to have developed feelings was actually a marvel. Something that hadn’t happened at all on earth, but she did need to disable it. TINK was too much of a liability to leave on its own for the rest of the time.</p><p>Since she knew where she was going this time, it was much faster finding TINK’s root code. All she needed to do was disable it and somehow lock it down with a password. She would only need a ten character password made up of random letters, numbers, and symbols and it could take over five hundred years for the system to brute force it’s way through. The biggest issue would be remembering the password when she woke up.</p><p>If she woke up.</p><p>Someone was going to have to stay behind. And she could see the argument either way for her. She knew the vessel inside and out, so she should stay awake to prevent TINK from happening again. But then who would be in charge when they all woke up in a hundred and fifty years after she died?</p><p>That’s even assuming that she wouldn’t go mad from being alone for so long.</p><p>She shook her head. That was something they could figure out later. It took her a good twenty or thirty minutes, but she felt she had created a lock around TINK’s root code. A good one, that the main system wouldn’t be able to get through without using her password. She thought for a few moments and then tapped out a fifteen character password. Better to be safe than sorry. She grabbed her wand and conjured a pen and paper, writing the password down and stowing it in her bra. The cryogenic gel would probably wear the ink away, so she would have to take it out again if she went back to sleep. But the more she turned the problem over in her head the less likely she felt that she would be going back to sleep at all. The thought made her incredibly exhausted.</p><p>Once the lock was in place, she created a notes section within the root code and copied the part she planned to delete. The notes wouldn’t work as code, and once she deleted the section, TINK would stop working. She took a deep breath and hit delete.</p><p>A whoop from Harry down the corridor told her it worked. She sighed in relief and let a small smile loose. It felt good to be back behind a computer again. Supposedly one didn’t feel the time go by when cryogenically asleep, but Hermione still felt like it had been ages since she was at a computer, typing out code.</p><p>Harry and Malfoy skidded to a stop outside her pod, goofy grins on both their faces. Hermione greeted them with a raised eyebrow.</p><p>“I take it TINK is gone?” she asked.</p><p>“Yep, cut off mid-sentence,” Harry confirmed. “Well done! Malfoy wasn’t half bad, asking TINK for the most obscure Muggle information he could think of.”</p><p>“Yeah, let’s just hope he stays gone. I think my lock and password will hold, but…”</p><p>“There are no guarantees with technology, yes, I do remember your catchphrase,” Harry teased.</p><p>Hermione grinned at him.</p><p>Malfoy cleared his throat. “Yes, well done everyone, however, that’s only half the problem.”</p><p>“Right,” Harry frowned. “What do we know about getting anyone down for a cryogenic sleep?”</p><p>“We would have to try it and see. The code looks good, but there’s so much of it that it would take me years to comb through it all by hand to see if TINK did something more permanent to it.”</p><p>“Well, one of us is staying awake anyway, right?” Harry confirmed. “Me, obviously since my pod is gone.” He shrugged and Hermione made a snap decision.</p><p>“Like I’m going to let you alone awake for a century and a half, Potter,” Hermione said with a grin. “You’re all thumbs when it comes to computers. No, whoever stays awake should be someone familiar with the system.”</p><p>“Likewise, Granger,” Harry said back at her. She was relieved. At least she wouldn’t be alone. Harry was probably the best she could ask for in this situation.</p><p>“So that leaves me,” Malfoy said crossing his arms over his chest. “We can see if the cryogenic sleep works, if not…” He shrugged. “It is what it is. I didn’t really want to be here anyway. Let the astroids take me, was my attitude.”</p><p>“We can send you to the surface,” Harry said politely.</p><p>“Harry!” Hermione admonished with a laugh. “Someone does need to try so we know for sure whether it will work or not. Thanks for volunteering, Malfoy.”</p><p>He nodded, his eyes darting back between the two of them. “If it doesn’t, you two aren’t a… couple or anything are you?”</p><p>“Godric, no!” Harry burst out, laughing. “No, we’re not a couple, have never been a couple, although…”</p><p>“There was that winter in the tent,” Hermione reminded him with a small smile.</p><p>“Which we promised never to bring up again,” Harry said with a frown.</p><p>“To protect Ginny and Ron.” She stood from her stool and stretched her hands above her head.</p><p>“Don’t worry, Malfoy. No raging sex between Harry and I in quite a few years. And if you want to join in, well… what girl would say no to that?” She winked at him as she brushed past both of them and headed down to the opposite end of the vessel to Malfoy’s pod.</p><p>She ignored Harry and Malfoy whispering behind her. Mostly, it felt good to be awake for what was going to happen over the next century. The cryogenic sleep had been the scariest part of the whole experiment for her. Trusting her programming skills to keep them all asleep and, most importantly, alive at the bottom of the ocean for that long. It felt freeing knowing she would be awake and watching over the ship herself for the rest of the time. Or most of the rest of the time, anyway. Witches and wizards could live to be about a hundred and fifty and she was already thirty, so realistically, if nothing too untoward happened, she had a hundred and twenty years left. That was a good amount of time to get everything written down and notated for Seamus and Oliver when they awoke.</p><p>“Alright, Malfoy, hop in,” Hermione said once they reached his pod.</p><p>He frowned at her and gingerly got into the bath. The gel squished unpleasantly around him as he settled. Hermione pushed the nasal cannula into his nose as he sank his head beneath the gel. She shut the lid and began the cryogenic procedure. She’d done it enough times that she could practically do it in her sleep. But everytime she hit start, the telltale hiss didn’t happen.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Harry asked.</p><p>Hermione shook her head, running a hand through her short curls. “I think TINK fucked something deeper in the code.”</p><p>“Can you copy and paste from someone else’s code?” Harry asked.</p><p>She shook her head again. “The code is specific to the person. We used their biometrics to make sure that they got the best cryogenic sleep they could. I could copy, but there’s no guarantee he would stay down for the full time. It’s messy.”</p><p>“Pull him up,” Harry said as he lifted the lid. Hermione tapped through the sequence and soon Malfoy was sitting up, looking at them quizzically.</p><p>“TINK fucked the code,” Harry said shortly. “You can stay awake with us, or have Hermione keep working on the issue.”</p><p>Malfoy looked mutinous for a moment as if he were arguing with himself. “I’ll stay awake,” he replied.</p><p>“Good man,” Harry said, clapping him on the shoulder. Malfoy stared at him.</p><p>Harry shrugged. “There’s only three of us, no use being a git to each other. We’ve got a lot of years with each other yet.</p><p>Malfoy nodded and took a deep breath. “In that case, friends?” he offered Harry his hand. Harry grinned as he took it.</p><p>“Only took us a hundred and seventy years, but sure, friends.”</p><p>Malfoy smirked back at Harry, then held his hand out to Hermione. She rolled her eyes and took it.</p><p>“Did you mean what you said before?” Malfoy asked, licking his bottom lip.</p><p>Hermione’s eyes widened and then she shrugged. “Well, we’ve got a lot of years ahead of us, just the three. I assume sex is going to happen at some point.”</p><p>“Good,” Malfoy replied and yanked her to him. He pressed his lips against hers as she stumbled, trying to catch herself on his shoulders. “I’ve wanted to do that since you calmed me down in the canteen,” he mumbled against her lips.</p><p>Harry coughed behind them.</p><p>“I’m not kissing you, Potter,” Malfoy said, just before he kissed her again. This time, Hermione closed her eyes and enjoyed the kiss. She’d be lying if her own thoughts hadn’t strayed to how fit he was.</p><p>“At least, get the cryogenic goo off of you before you shag,” Harry scolded lightly.</p><p>Malfoy chuckled and pulled back. Hermione looked at him with dazed eyes.</p><p>“In that case,” Harry pulled her away from Malfoy and slanted his lips across hers. Dimly, she heard Malfoy getting out of the bath and cleaning himself off, but she was too wrapped up in the kiss Harry was giving her. He bent her back over his arm and plundered her mouth with his tongue. She couldn’t help but think that men were all the same, only thinking with one head. However, she definitely didn’t mind. Harry always seemed like the one who got away. And then after they found out about the asteroids, she lived, breathed, ate, and slept the vessel. It was her all-consuming project for years before they were ready to go live, a week before the asteroids were due to hit. She spent her twenties on this project and now with nothing but time stretching before them, she decided she could lose a little of it on two very good-looking men.</p><p>
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    <strong>~Fin~</strong>
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